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Topic: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?  (Read 5199 times) previous topic - next topic
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What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

I'd be grateful if someone could suggest a good way to do the following:

I have a large local FLAC library, all manually meta tagged, etc, and that is for home listening. I add 1-5 albums a week to that collection so it is not static.

I would like to have an AAC library synced with the FLAC library so that I can easily add new albums to my iPhone playlist and sync selected music to the iPhone that way. The conversion would need to embed album art as well as I have no embedded art in my FLAC files.

At the moment, everything is done in a very manual and messy way. I tried to use the Apple Music app to import my FLACs directly but this didn't work so at the moment I have to manually transcode FLAC to AAC using XLD (which does the album art embedding at the same time) then import the newly transcoded files into Apple Music and then add the albums to the iPhone playlist in Apple Music and then sync the playlist with the iPhone.

I am really looking for a syncing approach rather than batch converting the whole library every time, which takes all day.

There must be many people wanting to sync lossless music at home with lossy music on their iPhones so I feel there must be a better way... right? :)

(Note: I don't stream music from Apple or have any wish to use their cloud service.)

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #1
In case it helps anyone else, I discovered WALTR 2 which makes all of the above much simpler as you can drag and drop a FLAC album onto the app interface and it will convert the album to ALAC or AAC (user selectable) and add it directly to the music library in the iPhone. Huge time saver!

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #2
In the first place, FLAC isn’t supported by Apple Music or iTunes, so there’s nothing that can be done about that except for conversion of your entire lossless library and any future additions to ALAC (which as a lossless format is less convenient overall) then turning that into AAC via either iTunes or XLD.

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #3
Most of the time one’s library is way to big to fit on a portable
Common practice
-   Make a (auto) playlist
-   Transcode (synchronize and format conversion on the fly) to a portable.
A lot of media players support this e.g. Musicbee: https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/MusicBee/MusicBee_Sync.htm
I’m talking Windows / Android here.

WALTR probably does the same in the iSomething environment.
TheWellTemperedComputer.com

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #4
Honestly, iTunes (now Music) and iTunes Match (the service you don't want) has changed how I do this. Everything I own is available on my iPhone (to stream), or I can select a playlist to be synced and dowloaded to the phone at all times.  Everything is from my lossless library (ALAC) and transcoded to AAC on the fly.

My life became so much easier when I stopped trying to fight the ecosystem. I transcoded everything to ALAC and just moved on

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #5
In the first place, FLAC isn’t supported by Apple Music or iTunes, so there’s nothing that can be done about that except for conversion of your entire lossless library and any future additions to ALAC (which as a lossless format is less convenient overall) then turning that into AAC via either iTunes or XLD.

But ALAC is not less convenient in this case. In fact, it's the most convenient.

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #6
I have friends who got a new job and then were expected to migrate to iPhone without the job offer warning them against all the filth ...

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #7
But ALAC is not less convenient in this case. In fact, it's the most convenient.
My apologies, I actually meant to say “less efficient” than FLAC.
Since it doesn’t save as much collective space as FLAC compression nor does it have MD5 checksum capability.

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #8
But ALAC is not less convenient in this case. In fact, it's the most convenient.
...nor does it have MD5 checksum capability.

Doesn't really need one if you use a decent filling system.

I have friends who got a new job and then were expected to migrate to iPhone without the job offer warning them against all the filth ...

Uh yeah, maybe best he still takes the job and uses a brand of phone he isn't keen of. What kind of person needs a warning about using an iPhone? Honestly, does no one exist outside of the internet? I'd assume this guys new job doesn't want his Android phone leaking private data to anyone with an internet connection. Their first priority is likely not is choice of file format for his music.

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #9
What kind of person needs a warning about using an iPhone?
Non-cultists.

If you want me to migrate on my own phone number, negotiate and offer due compensation. Including, do the jailbreak for me.

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #10
What kind of person needs a warning about using an iPhone?
Non-cultists.

Are you sure? I mean, really?

If you want me to migrate on my own phone number, negotiate and offer due compensation. Including, do the jailbreak for me.

"Hey, the new guy wants us to offer him compensation and jailbreak his work phone"
"Tell him we're rescinding the offer"

That's the only way that conversation will go in the real world. Imagine being so attached the the billion dollar multinational who spits out your phone hardware.

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #11
What kind of person needs a warning about using an iPhone?
Non-cultists.

Are you sure? I mean, really?

If they assign a telephone number to me and give me a phone which I never take home from work, fine - if they expect that I switch ecosystem then I should object. (Of course cultists won't object, they will see that as a natural path towards world domination.)

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #12
But ALAC is not less convenient in this case. In fact, it's the most convenient.

It is as you write, I only use ALAC in ISO container, it is the best solution both in case you want to download the corresponding compressed songs from Apple for a fee (and there is no competition with their encoder), and in case you want compress independently because their software chain offers the best sound. Apple encoders offer the best quality when they have a Float32 input, I don't think Flac seems to allow this.

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #13
"Get this guys, my friend's company doesn't even let him select the OS of choice for his work computer!!!! OUTRAGEOUS"

Like, if you have a phone OS issue with your work phone, ask to be issued a work phone and keep your personal phone, then dual carry. Just don't expect to do work stuff on your personal phone.

Personally, I would never expect an employer to let me keep my personal cell number for a work issued phone. Even if they did, and they even let me use my own device accounts for the device of my choice, what's to stop them from keeping those forever, even after I've left the company?

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #14
It is as you write, I only use ALAC in ISO container, it is the best solution both in case you want to download the corresponding compressed songs from Apple for a fee (and there is no competition with their encoder), and in case you want compress independently because their software chain offers the best sound. Apple encoders offer the best quality when they have a Float32 input, I don't think Flac seems to allow this.

FLAC doesn’t do Float32, but isn’t WavPack the lossless format that specializes in 32-bit depth?


Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #16
Fine. As one of the people in my online chat said, I will go back to my little Apple cult.

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #17
Honestly,  My solution is plex + plexamp.   True you need to pay for plex to get access to plexamp, it does all the heavy lifting to trancode my FLAC files into something mobile friendly while i'm out and about.

 

Re: What is the best way to sync iPhone AAC library with home FLAC library?

Reply #18
"Get this guys, my friend's company doesn't even let him select the OS of choice for his HOME computer!!!!
Fixed that for your dishonest strawman.

What employer would make someone use a specific OS for their home computer?  That really seems to be crossing the line.